Maturana travels for Puerto Rico game

Maturana travels for Puerto Rico game

 

Issued by Shaun Fuentes, TTFF Media Officer, January 16, 2007

 

Newly appointed interim head coach of the Trinidad and Tobago Senior Team Francisco Maturana will travel with the National squad to Puerto Rico for the friendly international against that country’s senior team on January 26.

 

The team, comprising mainly of home-based professionals will depart for Puerto Rico on January 24 and Maturana will join the contingent.

 

The former Colombia and Ecuador World Cup team coach, originally slated to officially begin his six-month tenure on February 1, expressed interest in going to Puerto Rico as part of the contingent and the TTFF willingly accepted.

 

Assistant coach Anton Corneal, who has been conducting the training sessions last couple weeks, said it would be a bonus to the current phase of the preparations which will allow Maturana to settle into the T&T set up prior to the assembly of the team for the February 6 friendly international against Guadeloupe.

 

“He wants to come and there’s no problem with that at all. As a matter of fact we are welcoming his earlier than planned arrival and it will allow him to meet with the players and the rest of the staff in a match environment before the February 6 encounter and just getting a feel of things from an earlier date is always going to be a plus,” Corneal told TTFF Media.

 

Maturana, in an interview while in Port of Spain earlier this month, indicated that he was very keen to have a wide view of the T&T player pool.

 

“It is very important to know every player possible who have played for the national team before, especially in the more recent years… and to know which other players might be available to the national team,” Maturana said.

 

“I will look at some of the past games but I already know some things about the team and I have seen games. Everything will be necessary to get the right preparation for the international games. It is all part of getting prepared to realize the dream of qualification to the next World Cup” he added.